The spptember conference 'Beyond the Academy' will "...explore the involvement
of the critical human geographer in lives beyond the academy". It is to a
large exent a club meeting, and it would be better to 'ask the victims' - but
that is rare anyway. Nevertheless....
Why is critical geography so harmful?
1. It refuses to criticise the exisiting order. That applies especially to the
ideology of liberal democracy and neoliberalism, which is often accepted as
self-evident truth. For instance, that a nation must compete economically with
other nations, or that nations must trade. They accept unquestioningly the
mythology of liberalism - for instance that the liberation of concentration
camps was good, and that the US soldiers were the 'good guys'.
2. It demeans and marginalises opposition to the dominant ideology. Proposals
of opposition are treated as absurd, and their supporters as cranks or
ill-educated. It is impossible in the climate of left academic / critical
geography to propose the death penalty for the rich, for instance.
3. Critical geographers are hostile to outside critics (such as myself).
4. They promote new forms of social oppression, the type associated with the
New Democrats, New Labour or the continental social-liberal coalitions -
workfare, meritocracy, gentrification. Many promote military interventionism
in support of their values (human rights).
5. In some cases they engage in right-wing propaganda: the praise of the
British Army on this list for instance, or the quasi-ethnic group identity
promoted by gay and lesbian academics.
--
Paul Treanor
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